


And No One Here Could Turn Away

by Mireille



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Community: femslash07, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-03-12
Updated: 2007-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-19 03:32:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13695981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mireille/pseuds/Mireille
Summary: "Manista's hand was raised as if she were waving goodbye."





	And No One Here Could Turn Away

At first, Ida had thought the woman was someone's girlfriend, or possibly their wife.   
  
Not because she was young and pretty; everyone started out young, and having a pretty face didn't disqualify you from having a brain. Danny Bartock was young and pretty, when you got right down to it, and while Ida wouldn't say there was  _no one_  better with the Ood than Danny, she knew whenever she saw his name on the crew list that everything would be run properly and without any code violations.   
  
But the girl was wearing a bright red dress; any time Ida happened to look in that direction, it caught her eye. They were encouraged to come to the farewell party out of uniform, as one of the last times they'd be able to wear normal gear until they got back. But "out of uniform," for the rest of them, wasn't quite so distinctive. They'd all been wearing uniforms, or the casual variants of them that passed muster on long missions, for so long that even their off-duty clothing had some of the same look about it. It wasn't crimson, and it didn't swirl around their legs as they turned to wave at someone across the room.   
  
Every time Ida saw the girl, she was laughing, and Ida saw her everywhere she looked, that evening. It wasn't only her who found it hard to tear her eyes away from the girl, either, she noticed. It was the red, she thought; it was eye-catching.   
  
Then Captain Stoddard had introduced her to Officer Scootori Manista, Maintenance (Trainee), and Ida had discovered that their new maintenance officer was a pretty young girl in a bright red dress. Of course, given that she'd been chosen for something like this, even as a trainee, she was a great deal more than that.   
  
A few minutes later, after making small talk with Officer Manista, who had introduced herself as "Scooti," Ida realized that even once Manista was in the same drab gear as the rest of them, she was going to find it hard to make herself look away.   
  
  


***

  
  
It was tradition, the captain always insisted, to drink a toast to the success of the mission, and who was Ida to argue with tradition? She rather liked some of the old ways, to be honest--not that she'd want to go back to the dark ages. One of her friends from university had gone to live on one of the colonies that had mandated in their charters that after the initial terraforming, they'd allow only pre-spaceflight levels of technology. Ida had thought he was completely insane. Still, traditions and rituals were very important.   
  
Interesting, too; perhaps, if her bonus for this mission was as big as they were being promised it would be, she'd take some time off, go for that degree in anthropology. She was certain the Archive would approve the leave; she'd be more flexible, professionally speaking, and it would be easier for the personnel officers to find missions that would need someone with her skill-set.   
  
She noticed Manista was standing off by herself, her glass of sparkling wine held untouched in her fingers. Ida handed her plate to Zach, knowing he'd finish her hors d'oeuvres for her. They'd somehow run out of Protein Six before he got on deck, and he hadn't wanted to waste food by asking the Ood to prepare more just for him--though he hadn't let that stop him from scooping it off Ida's plate when he thought she wasn't looking.  
  
She crossed the deck in just a few steps. "It isn't even fermented from vat-grown vegetative matter," she said. Captain Stoddard had a connection on Omicron Colony, one of the planets old enough the first settlers had introduced actual Earth-species crops, and they used actual  _grapes_ \--Ida thought the vat-grown product tasted better, but she appreciated the gesture. "You're wasting genuine Omicron Spumante."   
  
"Do you think we'll ever come back?" Manista replied; it took Ida a moment to process the change of subject.   
  
"Of course we'll come back. This is the best crew the Archive has," she said, firmly, and it was. Individually, they weren't all the best at their jobs, but together--for the three runs they'd done together, they had one of the highest success-and-efficiency rankings in Archive history. Even with two new team members on board--for some reason, the higher-ups had decided they needed an archaeologist this time--she had no doubt they'd be coming back. "That's why they're sending us."   
  
"And you don't mind that they're telling us it could be a two-to-three year tour this time?"  
  
"It won't be," Ida said. "They always pad the estimates; it saves people complaining they're away too long. We'll get there, locate that power source, and be home to collect the thanks of the empire and a nice fat bonus. Zed and I will have enough material to publish a dozen papers, and you'll get a promotion for sure."   
  
"But it'll be a year, at the very least." Ida nodded, and Manista went on. "You won't be homesick?"   
  
Why should she? Ida thought. This was her home; the captain and Zach and Jefferson and Danny were her family.  
  
She was about to try to explain that to Manista when the captain called out, "Positions, everyone," and she realized the Ood were circulating, collecting glasses and plates and quickly getting them secured in the cleaning unit. The human crew headed for the flight deck, even those with no actual role in lift-off. It was another tradition; everyone was present when they took off.   
  
Ida did have work to do, monitoring the computer systems, making sure Zach had all the data he needed, but she couldn't help but glance over at Manista a few times during the procedure.   
  
The viewport was set to supply the rear view; Zach didn't need the visuals to pilot them in familiar space, and the captain liked to watch the asteroid that held Archive HQ disappearing into the black.   
  
Manista's hand was raised, Ida noticed, as if she were waving goodbye.   
  


***

  
  
"She's flirting with you," Zachary said, setting his tray down at the spot across from Ida.   
  
"Don't be stupid," Ida said immediately, not looking up from her own meal. "We've all got better things to do on this mission than flirt." Especially now; they were only a few days out from Krop Tor, and everyone was frantically making last-minute preparations.   
  
"Have we?" He sat down, picking up his fork and beginning to eat. "I swear there's something wrong with the Protein Four here."   
  
"Oh, I don't know," Ida said, taking another bite. "It tastes all right to me."   
  
"As if you'd notice," Zach said, cheerfully. "With our Maintenance Officer batting her eyes at you, it's a miracle you can taste your food at all."   
  
Oh yes, they were one big family on Sanctuary Six, and Zachary Cross Flane had appointed himself her irritating younger brother. "She isn't--" Ida began, and then looked up again. She'd intended, she told herself, to look to see if she could wave Danny over without getting Zed along with him. The archaeologist had exhausted Ida's patience with his insistence that he shouldn't have to do anything that wasn't his job. Meanwhile, the rest of them pitched in on laundry detail and anything else that worked better with human supervision, because it was what you did.   
  
But her eyes were drawn over to where Scooti was turning around, her dinner tray in her hands. Scooti caught her eye, beaming and shifting the tray to one hand so she could wave with the other one. Without even thinking about it, Ida waved back.   
  
And then Scooti was at their table, sliding in next to Ida, closer than necessary.   
  
"I told you so," Zach said, picking up his tray. "I'm going to go see if Danny still has anything left in that package of food his mum sent him off with." Mother Bartock's care packages were legendary among Stoddard's regular crew, and Danny's willingness to share had made him a hero among his crewmates when they'd reached the limit of how much standard protein mix they could eat without going mad.   
  
"Told her what?" Scooti asked. Zach had already walked away, though; she shrugged before taking a bite of her own meal. "Is the blue meant to be Protein Four? It tastes horrible."  
  
"I think there was a glitch in our Ood's culinary training," Ida answered, swallowing another bite without really tasting it.   
  
"I'll say." She pushed it to one side, taking a bite of something else--red, so it was either Three or Seven. "So, what was Cross Flane saying 'I told you so' about? I'm sure it was me, with the look he was giving me, but I don't remember having done anything terribly wrong lately. The captain liked my suggestion of increasing the frequency of routine maintenance checks to make certain everything's running perfectly when we reach the target."   
  
Ida could feel herself going red, her cheeks burning hotly as she shook her head. "It was nothing important." Then, against her own better judgment, she went on, "He was teasing me, that's all. Said you were flirting with me."   
  
Scooti laughed, and Ida flushed again, not certain if she was relieved or disappointed.   
  
"I don't know where he got that idea," Ida said, putting her fork down and pushing her chair back. If she left now, she'd have a chance to nap for a bit before she went back on duty. They were all on double shifts until they reached their destination and had Sanctuary Base Six established.   
  
"And here I was thinking that he was awfully observant," Scooti said.   
  
Ida felt something brush her arm, and looked down to see that Scooti had taken her hand. If she wanted to, she thought, she could pull away, carry out her original plan to go back to her quarters and get some sleep. The regulations would be on her side; she wouldn't even have to hurt Scooti's feelings, or lie and say she didn't find the younger woman fascinating. She simply had to put the mission first, last, and always.  
  
She looked down at Scooti's hand, slim fingers curving around Ida's wrist, and realized that pulling away was almost unthinkable.   
  


***

  
  
"I'm old enough to be your mother," Ida said, her fingers threading through Scooti's curls.   
  
"My mother," Scooti countered, unbuttoning the jacket of her dress uniform and settling herself more comfortably over Ida's lap, "is sixty-seven Earth-standard years old."  
  
"I didn't say I was as old as your actual mother," she said. "I said that technically, given the difference in our ages, I  _could_  be your mother."   
  
"Oh,  _technically_ ," Scooti repeated, lips twitching in a suppressed smile. "Well, if we're speaking  _technically_ , then  _technically_ , they won't remove the contraceptive implants before you're twenty-five, unless you're settling permanently on a Category One or Two colony world, in which case you wouldn’t be here. So  _technically_ , you'd have to be at least forty-five or forty-six to be my mother, and I know you aren't." She grinned smugly up at Ida. "I've read your file."  
  
"I'm the Science Officer," she said. "Now that Captain Stoddard's--I'm second in command now." She'd been the acting 2IC for twenty-three hours, had held the position officially for just over one; Zach had made it official before the captain's memorial service.   
  
"I know," Scooti said. "Believe me, I'm very impressed." She gave Ida what was obviously meant to be a starry-eyed gaze.   
  
Despite everything, Ida had to laugh. "I meant--"  
  
"I know what you meant," Scooti said. "But I still report to Danny concerning the Ood's assignments and to the captain for everything else. We're not interfering with the chain of command."   
  
If something happened to Zach, Ida thought, she would be the captain. Mr. Jefferson had the equivalent rank, and the seniority to boot, but he wouldn’t take the job; she'd heard that he'd been offered a promotion and his own command, and had turned it down to sign on here.   
  
If something happened to Zach, she'd be Scooti's commanding officer, and she'd be violating the spirit as well as the letter of the regulations.   
  
Something could happen to her, tomorrow or the next day or any time at all; they were in space, and accidents happened. If it did, she didn't want to die regretting this.   
  
And Scooti was looking up at her, her hand coming up to settle on the back of Ida's neck, tugging her downward for a kiss, and Ida couldn’t turn away.   
  


***

  
  
"She was twenty. Twenty years old," Ida breathed. No one replied; what could they say?   
  
She looked up at the viewport for another moment, watching the dust swirl in the airless void, fragments of the universe being sucked into the black hole. Watching one particular fragment drift. However she'd died, she--her body--hadn't been damaged; it almost seemed as though they were looking into one of those zero-gee recreation domes they had on some of the central worlds: Scooti spinning and drifting weightlessly, her hand raised as though she knew she was being observed and was waving to them.   
  
Waving goodbye.   
  
Ida didn't have the luxury of breaking down; she was the science officer on a base that was now short two crew members, with a difficult mission to accomplish, two strangers to deal with--strangers who'd appeared from nowhere. And, obviously, there was something unexplained and terrifying going on; no one would have just gone outside without a suit. Not even if they'd been suicidal, and she was sure Scooti hadn't been. She'd have known, wouldn’t she?   
  
She couldn't break down, and she couldn't say anything else. For her, that was odd; she'd been the one to speak at the captain's memorial, and she'd made a habit of reading up on the star systems about to disappear into the black hole, eulogizing each one. For dead rocks drifting in space, she could be a poet.   
  
But for Scooti, Ida could say nothing at all. She could only close the viewport, knowing that until she did, no one would be able to look away. 

**Author's Note:**

> [me on tumblr](https://mireille719.tumblr.com)


End file.
